KANO: Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead 21 people in northeast Nigeria who were trying to return home to recover abandoned food supplies, a local official and a victim’s relative said on Monday.

“The men, 21 of them, were stopped at Bultaram (village) by gunmen we believe are Boko Haram who shot them dead,” said Baba Nuhu, an official with the Gujba local government in Yobe state.

Nuhu and Haruna Maram, the brother of one of the victims, spoke from Yobe’s capital Damaturu, where many Gujba residents have fled to seek refuge from Boko Haram violence.

“My brother and 20 others wanted to bring back their grains to augment their lean food supplies to feed their families,” Maram said.

“Unfortunately, they were killed by (the) same Boko Haram we ran away from.” Gujba is one of a handful of districts in Yobe that Boko Haram captured during a sweeping offensive last year.

The area has been hit by waves of attacks through the six-year Islamist

uprising, including a massacre at an agricultural college in 2013 that targeted students sleeping their dormitories.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2015

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